iPhone tops smartphone sales in Japan for the first time

During the winter quarter, Apple's iPhone topped smartphone sales in Japan for the first time, with 26.6 percent market share.

According to a report by Mainichi Japan citing numbers published by IDC Japan, the launch of the iPhone 4S dramatically shifted sales numbers, sending first place Sharp into third place during the quarter with 15.7 percent share, and pushing the combined sales of Fujitsu-Toshiba into second place with 18.2 percent share.

Over the entire year, Sharp led sales with 20.1 percent share, followed by Fujitsu-Toshiba at 18.8 percent and Apple at 14.2 percent.

Fujitsu had been making mostly feature phones before announcing a joint venture with Toshiba in June 2010 to build smartphones based on Toshiba's existing Windows Mobile models.

Last fall, Toshiba announced the intent to bail out of the partnership this year, just after the joint venture delivered the "IS12T" phone running Windows Phone 7, which launched alongside the iPhone 4S on the more popular KDDI network, but failed to have the same impact.

Apple's blockbuster sales of iPhone 4S in Japan are particularly noteworthy because the company was still exclusively tied to Softbank, the third largest carrier in the country, throughout 2011. Also notable is that just three years ago, Brian X Chen created a story for Wired that portrayed Japan as "hating" the iPhone.

This year, Apple is reported to soon be expanding iPhone availability to KDDI, a CDMA carrier (like Verizon Wireless) in the process of deploying 4G LTE.

The Japanese market is important enough to Apple to make Japanese the first new language Siri has expanded to support in since the launch of iPhone 4S, a feature enhancement Apple's chief executive Tim Cook noted in presenting iOS 5.1.

I remember submitting a post to one of these negative articles soon after the iPhone launched in Japan, about the numbers of people I saw using iPhones on the Tokyo metro; I think it was something like 30% of riders using iPhones when western reporters were claiming it wouldn't gain traction. This was first-hand observation, but it drew the ire of someone else who claimed to live in Japan and sought to explain why the Japanese would never use iPhones. Go figure. Real data matters.

edit: After a quick perusing those may not be the most relevant articles.

edit 2: 2nd and 3rd link looks most fun.

edit 3:

Quote:

Originally Posted by slapppy

"I showed how I can play videos with iPhone's iPod feature. She then pulled out an antenna and showed how she can get live satellite broadcasts. In fact, we were watching the same show on her phone that we were watching on TV.

I said "Oh, wow"

Well thats why the Japanese aren't too impressed with the iPhone. Can't even copy and paste on it.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

"TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Cellphones made by Apple Inc. captured the largest share of mobile phones shipments in Japan for the first time in the October-December quarter, accounting for 26.6 percent, due to the popularity of the iPhone 4S smartphone model, research firm IDC Japan said Thursday."

I remember submitting a post to one of these negative articles soon after the iPhone launched in Japan, about the numbers of people I saw using iPhones on the Tokyo metro; I think it was something like 30% of riders using iPhones when western reporters were claiming it wouldn't gain traction. This was first-hand observation, but it drew the ire of someone else who claimed to live in Japan and sought to explain why the Japanese would never use iPhones. Go figure. Real data matters.

There are a lot of good reasons for believing Apple would have a very hard time being a player in the Japanese market. That makes the news that Apple is the top in sales in Japan all the more amazing AND a credit to everything Apple excels at!

"That (the) world is moving so quickly that iOS is already amongst the older mobile operating systems in active development today." — The Verge

Not only that, Phil Schiller mentioned adding KDDI at the iPhone 4S rollout. KDDI is a big reason why iPhone 4S has been topping the charts. Daniel Eran Dilger should have done his homework before posting.

That's my old Solipsism account. Now I'm SolipsismX. I've received infractions but never banned.

I want to be bad too but the best I managed was being banned from MacRumors for replying to three posts seperately instead of using a multiple reply ... Well it could have been my reply to the mod regarding the infraction ...

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

I want to be bad too but the best I managed was being banned from Macrumors for replying to three posts seperately instead of using a multiple reply ...

That place is like Digg. I like Arnold Kim but the commenters on that forum have the same mentality of old Digg commenters. You can't have a conversation of a rationale debate. I hate the trolls we have here but I'll take them any day over the MR neonates any day.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Apple has been at the top of the smartphone list, in Japan for a while. This is all cell phones! Seeing how Japan is like the Galapagos islands (in mobile tech!) it's no mean feat.

The "Galapagos islands" meme is a recent one pushed by lazy press and by "consultants" who need to sell the message "everything here is so different that you can't possibly understand it without my help". But the truth is that here in Japan, markets work the same as everywhere else, and in the end, good products get noticed and find success. iPhones are by no means the only phones I see here in Tokyo, but they sure are a lot of them. (Still a lot of people hanging on to antiquated "feature phones", too. Even before the iPhone, I thought those were awfully clunky. Oh well; progress does happen, just not always quickly)

The latest reports putting iPhone on top are nothing surprising, IMO. Don't forget that WIRED had to end up apologizing for the infamous "Japan hates the iPhone" article, for which author Brian Chen simply made up supporting quotes from Japanese bloggers.

I want to be bad too but the best I managed was being banned from MacRumors for replying to three posts seperately instead of using a multiple reply ... Well it could have been my reply to the mod regarding the infraction ...

You got an infraction for not multi-quoting?! That's hilarious. I'll have to make sure to never ask anyone to multi-quote here again, then, just to spite them.

You got an infraction for not multi-quoting?! That's hilarious. I'll have to make sure to never ask anyone to multi-quote here again, then, just to spite them.

No ... Not an infraction, I was actually was banned for several days! I was to say the least, a little taken back. None of the three replies were related but apparently my replies were in too short of a time span to be allowed separately. Meanwhile folks could scream at each other and be ok!

BTW ... I could be wrong but I think their system does it automatically now, just reply two a few quickly and they are all placed in the same reply for you, even if they are completely unrelated ... A stupid system IMHO... I agree with Soli, AI. rocks compared to MR.

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

No ... Not an infraction, I was actually was banned for several days! I was to say the least, a little taken back. None of the three replies were related but apparently my replies were in too short of a time span to be allowed separately. Meanwhile folks could scream at each other and be ok!

I agree. The process for handing out infractions and bans is completely out of control. I got an infraction for calling "I'm a Zither Zather Zuzz" "I'm a snore" (get it-"I'm a zzz"?) while people get away with relentless trolling and attacks.

"I'm way over my head when it comes to technical issues like this"Gatorguy 5/31/13

I agree. The process for handing out infractions and bans is completely out of control. I got an infraction for calling "I'm a Zither Zather Zuzz" "I'm a snore" (get it-"I'm a zzz"?) while people get away with relentless trolling and attacks.

Was this on AI? I better stop using Slither Slather Suss then!

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

I am at a loss to understand why the language select screen has an English (United Kingdom) option. No Apple, it's just English, as spoken and invented by the English. It's not a variant of English, it's not a custom SKU, it's just the default, the neutral position, the one correct version of English.

If you want to feature alternate unofficial versions of English, then feel free, but there is no such thing as English (United Kingdom), it's just English.

I am at a loss to understand why the language select screen has an English (United Kingdom) option. No Apple, it's just English, as spoken and invented by the English. It's not a variant of English, it's not a custom SKU, it's just the default, the neutral position, the one correct version of English.

If you want to feature alternate unofficial versions of English, then feel free, but there is no such thing as English (United Kingdom), it's just English.

As opposed to Geordie, Liverpudlian, Scouse, Cockney ... And so on ....

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"